nanny interview

we just had our first meeting with a nanny candidate. she seems really nice. 

next step: test it out to see if lumi agrees.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

charming, charming, charming. i loved it. it's a fast read with endearing characters and many moving moments.

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summer

it's ridiculously warm here today. it's +12 C! almost all the snow melted in the last 24 hours and everyone seems to be filled with the hope of spring.

summer

it's getting warmer here and all the snow is melting! it's kind of great and fills me with hope. and also the knuckles on my hands are less dry.

swimming

we went to swim at "Aquadream" water park yesterday. lumi loved it!

"Katachi"

Shugo Tokumaru "Katachi" from Kijek / Adamski on Vimeo.

so great!

maybe the attitude is added in translation

yesterday i saw an advertisement on the American Women's email list. it was for a nanny available in the afternoons who speaks english and czech. we are considering getting help, especially for the days when i am teaching and kimmo is traveling. so i emailed the address listed, and got this response:

If you will to see me and have serious interests  , please write asap, I 'v got more demands.

this seems ridiculous to me. you were the one advertising! why does it sound like i'm inconveniencing you?

Anne of the Island

Anne of the Island by L.M. Montgomery
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

montgomery is killing me with this drawn out romance with gilbert blythe. i have to say i enjoyed the characters in this book better than anne of avonlea. paul irving is annoying, but phil gordon is fun.

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book club meeting

we had a book club meeting last night. i enjoy a lot of the ladies there, but they always seem to choose pricey restaurants. i'm enjoying the book club, so i need to work on budgeting for a couple glasses of wine and just eating beforehand.

New books for the next 3 months:

February - The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer

March 2013 - The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver

April 2013 - Prague winter by Madeleine Albright

one of the women has read a lot of the same books as i have. she seems to have similar inclinations, but her opinion on what is good differs just a little bit from mine. it has only been a few months, but so far i have been safely able to say that if she *loves* it, i will enjoy it but not love it. this came up because i read 'The Lacuna' already and though i liked the story, i thought it was a bit over the top and i was ready to be done with it. she said something like that it was "everything a book could be".

illness

kimmo got sick last night with what appears to be a 6-hour stomach bug. he felt fine before, then was vomiting between midnight and 5:00, then felt fine. lumi had a similar thing last wednesday.

i'm embarrassed to say that when i woke up and heard someone being sick my first thought was not one of loving sympathy, but instead "what the hell are those cats doing?" after a minute or so, i rolled over to commiserate with kimmo and only when i didn't see him did i realize it was him. poor guy.

Isä!

Kimmo is home now from a business trip and the house is a much more cheerful place. Lumi didn't seem unhappy when he was gone, but she seems happier now that he's back.

Anne of Avonlea

Anne of Avonlea by L.M. Montgomery
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

i didn't like this as much as 'anne of green gables', but i devoured it nonetheless.

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eating

now that kimmo is out of town, i'm eating a smaller portion at dinner. i wish i could have the willpower to do it regularly! 

my most successful diet was several years when my stepmother was dieting along with me, albeit remotely -- she is one of the nicest people in the world, so it gave me a good support system and i didn't want to disappoint her by cheating. i wish i had a partner like that now for this!

Anne of Green Gables

Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

i enjoyed the hell out of this. i'm mad at myself for not reading it in adolescence.

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family adjustments

we are looking into kimmo taking on another customer, other than nokia. this means that he would probably need to travel. having him gone 5 days a week would be hard on kimmo, hard on me, and hard on lumi. so we're asking about maybe just 3 days per week.

and then maybe we would get a helper, like the wheatleys have in hong kong. their helper, yeng, is awesome! she is kind and good with the kids and a great cook. the trouble is finding someone like her, because now our standards are very high!

night times

we (actually i, since kimmo is out of town) tried something new last night for potty training. we put lumi back in the crib.  

ever since we bought it last fall, she has been hating her toddler bed, and insisting on "big bed" with us. this is fine (it's not a small bed) and i actually like cuddling with her, but for potty training it would be really annoying, since changing sheets is more complicated for a big bed, and we only have one big waterproof thing for that bed. so ideally we would like to have her in a smaller bed for this process.

when we got back from asia we decided to since the toddler bed is 160cm long, and i am 160cm tall, i would try sleeping with her for a few nights to get her accustomed to the bed and out of the "big bed". plus me being there meant that the changing sheets could be done quickly without a full wakeup for her. but she still hates it and plus she is not making much progress at not peeing during the night. we had one dry night, but i think it was just a coincidence.

so now that kimmo is traveling and he can't take any "get lumi to sleep without her crying and getting up" shifts, i was worried that i would lose my temper too much without my evening alone time. so i put her in the crib. she cried, but not too much, and then had a huge pee at around 9pm. i changed the sheets and she went back to sleep. it was great and i was planning on sleeping in my own bed, but then when i came to bed at 10pm, she woke up. so we both got in the toddler bed, and she stayed dry the rest of the night.

here's hoping it goes better tonight and i get to sleep in an adult bed!

Bootleg alcohol claims another

There has been yet another death related to poisonous bootleg alcohol in the Czech Republic.  The count is up to 39!  

It boggles my mind that people are still drinking bootleg alcohol.  Most of the victims seem to be older people living in smaller towns and villages, so maybe there isn't so much access to 'official' stuff.

i love this

new haircut

i tried a new haircutter (stylist? i'm not sure about the preferred nomenclature) today. he is a friendly older south african who has been living in prague 17 years. i'm not sure about the haircut yet (it usually take a few days of settling in and shampooing and styling before i can develop an informed opinion) but the experience was great.

doctor visit!

today i went to the doctor for the first time since we moved to prague. you need to be registered with a doctor in the czech republic to be able to get sick leave, so even though i'm not sick now i wanted to make sure i was registered. the doctor was very nice and spoke english quite well, which made me feel comfortable. this office had been recommended by the woman who cut my hair a couple of times, who described it as maybe a little overboard as far as care and babying an adult, but she loved it.

and i love getting weighed and having my blood pressure taken and those sorts of things.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

i really enjoyed this. it is a quick read and a great story. it was loaned to me by a book club member.

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